Outside Lula’s core, Alckmin focuses on military and agro – 02/25/2023 – Politics

With a discreet public performance, vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) has become a channel for dialogue between the government and some sectors that are more resistant to the PT, such as the military, agribusiness representatives and opposition parliamentarians.

Alckmin has sought to consolidate himself as a bridge between the Executive and more critical layers of society on the left. Allies say that this action is his strategy to maintain leadership in the PT administration, since he does not participate in the center of government power —concentrated in the Civil House— or in the formulation of economic policy, something that occurs mainly in the Ministry of Finance.

The vice-president kept only three official dispatches with Lula in 45 days of government, according to the agenda of the representative. But interlocutors of the vice president, who is also Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, point out that the two also talk by phone at least once a week.

Governor of São Paulo for four terms, Alckmin left the PSDB and joined the PSB to make the electoral alliance with Lula viable. The former toucan’s move to the PT ticket was part of Lula’s plan to reduce resistance to the PT in the productive sector and approach the center and the center-right.

After the victory, Lula appointed Alckmin to be the general coordinator of the transitional government. There was speculation that the post could be occupied by Gleisi Hoffmann, national president of the PT; or even by Aloizio Mercadante, now president of the BNDES and who coordinated the PT government plan.

Shortly afterwards, the deputy was announced as minister.

Alckmin was at Lula’s side at the meeting with governors shortly after the January 8 coup attacks; he also participated in the government’s first ministerial meeting and in the second meeting with the heads of state executives.

In this third event, Lula made a joke about the fact that Alckmin had not sat in his chair in the presidential office when the representative traveled to Argentina and Uruguay.

Alckmin explained to people close to him that he did not sit in the chair of the then governor Mário Covas (PSDB) when he was deputy in São Paulo and needed to occupy the position on an interim basis, from 1995 to 2001.

Lula’s relationship with the military has been strained since before his inauguration. A significant part of officers and troops are critical of the PT, while the president and allies are suspicious of a sector they consider politically contaminated by Bolsonarism.

The Minister of Defense himself, José Múcio, went so far as to say that the representative was having trouble turning the page.

In this sense, the ministry commanded by Alckmin became a tool to try to relax the relationship with the barracks. Lula began dealing with commanders about strategic projects for the Armed Forces and assigned the Industry, Commerce and Services Development portfolio to coordinate the participation of the private sector in these actions.

On Lula’s first international trip, one of Alckmin’s agendas as interim president was precisely to agree with Múcio and the military commanders on the creation of an investment committee for the strategic projects of the Forces.

The issue gained prominence within Alckmin’s ministry, which began to maintain direct contact with Múcio and the commanders.

In this way, the vice president reinforced the dialogue channel between the Planalto and the military. Allies of Alckmin claim that a relationship of trust is being built.

The deputy also keeps his office open to politicians from different ideological currents, including the opposition. He received, for example, Bolsonarist governors Marcos Rocha (União Brasil-RO) and Jorginho Mello (PL-SC).

There was also a meeting with the former leader of the Bolsonaro government in the Chamber Ricardo Barros (PP), who is currently Secretary of Industry, Commerce and Services of Paraná.

The vice-president had a strong role at the beginning of his term to strengthen his party’s Senate bench, the PSB, and consequently expand the government’s arc of alliances. He helped bring into the party names that were linked to Bolsonaro, such as the former deputy leader of the government Chico Rodrigues (RR); and others who acted more independently, such as Flávio Arns (PR) and Jorge Kajuru (GO).

On another front, Alckmin is opening channels with agribusiness, which has broadly supported Bolsonaro and had businessmen accused of financing coup acts.

Lula’s initial approach to the sector was in charge of Carlos Fávaro, current Minister of Agriculture. However, government interlocutors point out that Alckmin is also intensifying the rapprochement with agribusiness, mainly production more aimed at export.

The dialogue and intensification of actions and projects to deal with the issue of fertilizers, which became a problem with the war between Russia and Ukraine, two exporters of the product, point in this direction.

In addition, Alckmin presides over Cosban (Sino-Brazilian Commission of High Level of Concertation and Cooperation), the main institutional coordination mechanism of the Brazil-China relationship. The Asian country is the country’s main trading partner and a priority destination for Brazilian agribusiness.